In the past several years, recycling of valuable materials, and especially aluminum, has become a major industry. Thus, more and more families are now separating beverage and beer cans from the rest of their trash and returning the cans for payment.
At first, consumers had only the choice of returning the cans to a permanent or mobile recycling center. The consumer collected bags of cans at home and delivered these bags to the recycling center, where, in the case of a mobile center, the bags were weighed and the customer paid on a per pound basis. In the case of the permanent center, the bags were emptied, the aluminum and steel cans separated, and the customer paid on a per pound basis for the aluminum cans.
While this method of can collection is still by far the most popular one, it has certain disadvantages for both the consumer and the operator. First, the recycling locations are not always at convenient locations, due to zoning and other considerations, requiring travel on the part of the consumer to the recycling facilities. This, in turn, leads to less frequent trips, resulting in great numbers of cans being stored at home prior to a trip to the recycling center. These disadvantages for the consumer, it is believed, results in a lower rate of return than could be realized if the recycling were made easier for the consumer.
On the other hand, this recycling method has disadvantages for the recycler, as well. Since cans are brought to mobile centers in large quantities, there is no time to permit an evaluation as to whether a given can is aluminum or steel. Nor does the mobile center have the equipment necessary for efficiently separating aluminum and steel cans. Thus, when a bag of cans is weighed, the recycler often pays for steel cans that it does not desire, as well as the desired aluminum cans.
Another method for aluminum can recycling which is becoming increasingly popular is the use of the "reverse vending" machine. In such an apparatus, the consumer feeds cans to a machine, either in groups or individually, with the machine separating aluminum and steel cans, weighing the aluminum cans and paying the consumer for the weight of the aluminum received. These machines may be set up in shopping center parking lots, and the like, making the recycling locations more accessible to the consumer.
This equipment, however, is expensive, being in the order of 25 to 30 thousand dollars per unit, making the investment high on the part of the recycler. The high cost results from the need of the equipment to withstand vandalism and extraneous materials placed into the machine.
Recently, recycling has begun in the neighborhood grocery store. The consumer again brings a bag or bags of cans to the recycling location, which is now the local supermarket, where the cans are weighed and the customer is paid based upon the weight of the cans. The convenience of this method permits more frequent trips for the consumer and thus reduces storage requirements on the part of the consumer. This method, however, requires the supermarket to invest time and labor in the recycling operation and again makes no provision for isolating aluminum from steel cans, making it a costly investment for the store. The method has the advantage, however, of bringing recycling ability to every neighborhood, thus increasing the level of recycling activity.
It is desirable, therefore, to produce an apparatus which could be placed in supermarkets and the like, to differentiate between aluminum and steel cans, and provide a count of aluminum cans for which payment is due. This apparatus should be low in cost and maintenance, thus reducing investment for the recycler and labor costs for the supermarket.